Osinbajo will be at the meeting, which is coming as part of the resolutions reached last week’s virtual meeting chaired by Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo

Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement he signed on Thursday morning titled ‘President delegates Osinbajo to ECOWAS Extraordinary Summit on political situation in Burkina Faso, Mali & Guinea.’

According to Akande, Thursday’s meeting will “review the report of the ECOWAS delegation dispatched to Ouagadougou to meet with the military junta who recently seized power in Burkina Faso.

“The summit will be attended by regional leaders who will consider imposing additional sanctions after the country was suspended from the regional body last week.”

Moscow has a long history of relationship with Conakry which goes back to trade and economic cooperation during the Soviet times.

the foreign ministry said in a statement “Moscow opposes any attempt at an unconstitutional change of leadership. We demand the release of Mr Conde and a guarantee of his immunity. We consider it necessary to return the situation in Guinea to constitutional norms as soon as possible.”

It also announced that the visit of the Guinean Foreign Minister Ibrahima Khalil Kaba to Moscow, scheduled for Sept. 7, was cancelled amid the situation in the West African country.

Conde, in power for more than a decade, was detained by soldiers led by Col. Mamadi Doumbouya, who accused the president of personalizing politics and not doing enough to improve the country’s economic and social conditions.

Soldiers have also summoned Conde’s ministers and top government officials to a meeting on Monday, adding that failure to attend would be considered a “rebellion”.

The move was protested by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who strongly condemned “any takeover of the government by force of the gun” and called for “the immediate release of President Alpha Conde.”

This is the first time Marburg, a highly infectious disease that causes haemorrhagic fever and in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola has been identified in the country and in West Africa.

This is coming less than two months after Guinea declared an end to an Ebola outbreak that erupted earlier this year.

It was gathered that the patient had sought treatment at a local clinic in Koundou area of Gueckedou, where a medical investigation team had been dispatched to probe his worsening symptoms.

Samples taken from a now-deceased patient and tested by a field laboratory in Gueckedou as well as Guinea’s national haemorrhagic fever laboratory, turned out positive for the Marburg virus. Further analysis by the Institut Pasteur in Senegal confirmed the result.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa said; “We applaud the alertness and the quick investigative action by Guinea’s health workers. The potential for the Marburg virus to spread far and wide means we need to stop it in its tracks. We are working with the health authorities to implement a swift response that builds on Guinea’s past experience and expertise in managing Ebola, which is transmitted in a similar way.”

Efforts are underway to find the people who may have been in contact with the patient. As the disease is appearing for the first time in the country, health authorities are launching public education and community mobilization to raise awareness and galvanize support to help curb widespread infection.

According to WHO, Marburg virus is transmitted to people from fruit bats, and it spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces and materials. Illness begins with high fever, severe headache and general discomfort.

Infected patients also develop severe haemorrhagic signs within seven days. Case fatality rates have varied from 24 percent to 88 percent in past outbreaks, depending on virus strain and case management.

Guinean Minister of Sports Sanoussy Bantama Sow announced the pullout of five athletes of the country.

Sow said “Due to the resurgence of COVID-19 variants, the Government, concerned with preserving the health of Guinean athletes, has decided with regret to cancel Guinea’s participation in the Tokyo Olympics”

Wrestler Fatoumata Yarie Camara, judoka Mamadou Samba Bah, swimmers Fatoumata Lamarana Toure and Mamadou Tahirou Bah and sprinter Aissata Deen Conte were due to compete for the West African nation at the Olympics.

Guinea is not the first country to withdraw from the Games. North Korea had announced in April that it would not attend Tokyo 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 189 countries, that helps foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and reduce poverty around the world.

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, in a statement in Washington last night, announced debt service relief for 25 poor countries saying the debt relief was to enable the affected countries to better tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

The countries that were relieved of the debt include Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, D.R., The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo and Yemen.

She said, ” Today, I am pleased to say that our Executive Board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months and will help them channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts. The CCRT can currently provide about US$500 million in grant-based debt service relief, including the recent US$185 million pledge by the UK and US$100 million provided by Japan as immediately available resources. Others, including China and the Netherlands, are also stepping forward with important contributions. I urge other donors to help us replenish the Trust’s resources and boost further our ability to provide additional debt service relief for a full two years to our poorest member countries.”